Having recently finished a LOT of hard work, a trip with photographer friends to Utah was to be my reward. But best laid plans and all that, caused me to plan something else. B & C Camera in Las Vegas offered a lecture and the next day, a photo walk in Las Vegas, so I took advantage and drove there. The lecture was great and the next day, I drove a mere 20 minutes west of the city to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The park covers 195,000 acres of hiking, biking, climbing and horseback riding trails.
The park has a 13 mile scenic drive with many trailheads and scenic views. In the short time I had before my photo walk that evening, I took quick advantage of the beauty to snap a few photos. The photo above doesn’t tell how far away the rocks above my shadow are – probably a soccer field away. As is sometimes the case when I’m in a hurry, I left my tripod in the car and walked down into the first canyon using my trusty hiking poles. As I walked further up the wash, I snapped the photo before I noticed that I had captured two climbers scaling the cliff.
The rocks above remind me of beehives or piles of strawberry sweetened whipped cream! The sun was rapidly sinking in the west, giving not enough time to savor this lovely park.
The tree on top of the cliff (roughly 300′ above me) shows how tenacious desert plants can be. There were no other trees up there, just this one. This part of the Mojave Desert gets quite hot during the summer – too hot to allow campers to stay there.
The Joshua Trees are mostly stumps due to drought, not too many are actually trees. The purple mountains in the background are examples of eroded sandstone, but not as vividly colored as the rocks in the foreground.
The scenic drive winds all the way to the distant mountains, then turns back toward the city. Whenever I’m in a wilderness, I’m always saddened by the need to return to civilization!
These fun little cars are just one of the ways to tour the park. I also saw bicyclists, runners, helicopters and of course, cars.
The visitor center at the BLMÂ managed (Bureau of Land Management) park was beautiful. Since I was hurrying through, I didn’t realize until getting to the center that there are dinosaur tracks and petroglyphs in the park. Definately have to go back and spend more time. Also, love getting to use my national park pass for free entry.
Time for returning to the city. About 25 photographers joined FujiFilm representatives for the downtown photo walk. FujiFilm allowed us to use one of their line of cameras if we wanted to, so I did take advantage of trying a lighter camera for use on my many hikes into the high country. I did fall in love with one, but didn’t buy it (yet). 😉
I had to stand on the median in the middle of the street for this one. The other photographer with me was also snapping. Thankfully the median was big enough for both of us.
This is a quick taste of the sites on Freemont Street in Las Vegas, of course there is much, much more to snap another time.
from egghill 